Lunch was the first order of things, where the Shigure's sisters surrounded Shimakaze and asked her questions in order to know more about her.
Shimakaze answered them all happily while eating her lunch in classic Shimakaze fashion and finishing her lunch first, saying that her day just got better knowing that she now had friends to hang out with.
Her interests were racing, exercising, training up on her sprints and challenging various ship girls to races, which everyone knew by now that they were going to lose, but still humored her anyway.
But one topic of conversation that Shigure noticed everyone avoided was about Shimakaze's past.
And exercising some tact, she also decided not to ask about such a sensitive topic.
But one thing Shigure couldn't figure out right now was how Shimakaze's smile seemed off.
Well, it was more about how she smoothly looked away when they attempted to know her on a personal level.
It was well-hidden behind her smile, and she recovered fast enough, but she couldn't figure out why the fast destroyer would react so negatively.
Was she uncomfortable with sharing her innermost thoughts because she didn't have any sister ships, or was it because of something bad happening to someone close to her in the past that caused her to distance herself from others?
The Shimakaze-Class destroyer was somewhat easy to read, and this made Shigure feel a little guilty about being able to see through her facade so easily.
After lunch, the group of destroyers were at the engineering block, where they surrounded two engineers and were pleading with them about something.
The engineering block to the extreme corner of the base was filled with scrap materials that were sorted into various large plastic trays with duct tape stuck on them and labels written on them.
There were sawn-off metal poles piled up in one tray, their ends thankfully filed down to blunt edges as they were held down by leather straps and stored at the end of the hangar.
There were instruction pamphlets stapled onto the notice board and engineer uniforms left out to dry on the racks outside where the sun shone.
Machining tools hung from the ceiling like vines from a jungle ceiling, and some of the equipment, like the furnace that was essentially a large oven, was bolted down to the hangar floor with heavy-duty bolts and sealed when not in use, smaller handheld equipment left on the steel shelves.
The whole hangar stank of motor oil and the metallic taste of metal shavings, the impressive ventilation system keeping the air reasonably clean and was a true playground for the two engineers standing before the destroyers.
The engineers were both wearing oil-stained overalls with their name tags sewn atop them, one named "Fujishima Akio", was a man who looked to be in his thirties, with short cropped hair, black eyes that were hidden behind horn-rimmed glasses.
He was trying to pacify the enthusiastic destroyers surrounding him with his gentle and pacifistic demeanor while standing by his buddy "Nakagawa Kousuke", who had shorter hair that was barely a centimeter above his scalp, was a little bit pudgy and also wore glasses.
He was smirking at the fact that his best friend was becoming so popular all of a sudden and was shyly dealing with the girls before them.
Shigure was trying to explain the situation to the two engineers,
"We want to loan your go-karts.
We're trying to keep Shimakaze here company, and I heard that you had several go-karts in the hangar to be brought out to race if we could afford the price."
And Yuudachi asked,
"How do you guys have the time to craft the go-karts, Poi?"
And Kousuke answered.
"Well, as to the second question, we're still human. We still have to entertain ourselves, which isn't too difficult since we're surrounded by spare materials and enough spare time. Not every one of us has the physique to play basketball as a means to pass the time."
Akio turned back to regard his friend, mocking,
"Yeah, we can tell from your body that you're clearly in no position to engage in any physical activities. Go do some damn cardio, why don't you? We're at a military base, after all."
"Yeah, well, so long as you remember who has the higher GPA here when we graduated, I'm fine with you taking pot shots at me about my weight, bitch."
Akio waved him off, and turned to face the ship girls.
"We make a lot of the items in the base, but we leave the creation of ship girls and your weapons to the Fairies. Anything within the base, from beds to benches, we build them. And since the Admiral's pretty lax about these things, so long as we use spare resources within reason, don't do anything illegal and build these things in our spare time, she doesn't really care what we do."
Samidare pleaded,
"Please, good sir, we are willing to pay the fare if you'll let us ride the go-karts!"
But Kousuke assured her with a relaxed wave.
"It's alright. We make these things for everyone on this base, and we're more than happy to do anything to help you all relax and relieve your stress. Go-karts, see-saws, swings, even spare uniforms if you need them."
And Murasame then asked,
"So how much do we have to pay to ride the go-karts?"
And as Akio moved over to the notice board to pick up a set of keys and exited through a door marked "Garage", Kousuke shrugged and replied.
"Depends how many times you want to run the downhill course."
But when Yuudachi asked why they were only limited to the downhill course, Kousuke deadpanned,
"Well, each one of you destroyers weigh a fair bit more than a human adult even with your ship girl mode turned off. Considering how much gas the engine's going to consume to move the go-kart uphill, it's more fuel-efficient to only allow downhill runs."
Akio approached the group in a white golf-cart with a small shelter to protect the driver from rain or shine, and in the exposed trunk were a few stacks of traffic cones, "Do Not Cross" tapes, and a few "Stop" signs along with some metal poles to prop up the said signs.
He gently pressed on the brakes and brought the already sluggish cart to a halt as he chirped.
"Remember when Yamato asked to ride the uphill course the first week she was here? The go-kart slid back down after going a few meters up the slope and used up two-thirds of the gas tank."
Kousuke raised an eyebrow at Akio's choice of transport, and asked his best friend.
"Yo, man. I know that you have shit taste in cars, but could you have picked something with a little more power? I think even I could out-walk that slow cart everyone uses to get around the base."
But Akio smirked at him, and retorted.
"Yeah, but I gotta bite the bullet because I don't want you to get a heart attack or something when you exert yourself as you walk the course, right?"
Right as he pressed down on the accelerator and turned to the left to exit the hangar.
Kousuke returned the shit-eating smirk and raised his middle finger to his friend, who noted the gesture and returned the gesture while driving away.
When Akio was out of sight, Samidare asked Kousuke, who lowered his hand in a wary voice.
"U-Um, is it alright to treat your friend that way?"
Kousuke shrugged and waved off her concerns, motioning for the destroyers to follow her.
"Eh, it's alright. We've known each other since young, so we don't really mind it when we trash talk each other. Not when we know when to cut the bullshit and focus on our jobs when necessary. Come on, now. We're gonna have to adjust the seats of the go-karts so that you girls are comfortable while Akio sets up the track."
Opening a door on the far end of the room, Kousuke led the group into a well-lit hangar of engineering wonders, amongst them a Ferris Wheel about 3 meters tall and sitting intimidatingly in the middle of the hangar, almost kissing the steel beams atop the hangar roof.
There were several rollers and wheels mounted underneath the large structure, a generator mounted beneath the Wheel the source of power for the currently-inactive light bulbs on the Ferris wheel structure and carriages with steps leading up to the lowest carriage.
The whole structure was made out of reinforced steel and carbon fiber, Kousuke noting the destroyers' interest in the large structure and commented.
"We bring this bad boy out whenever we have a festival of sorts, and the Admiral decides it's ok to waste some fuel powering it for the night."
But when Murasame asked,
"B-But what counts as an occasion for celebration so important that we can bring this Ferris Wheel out?"
Kousuke shrugged and replied dryly.
"Dunno. We haven't got much reason to celebrate nowadays, if you know what I mean. Besides, we're in the military, and we don't celebrate holidays like normal civilians do."
But as the destroyers drooped their heads and looked depressed at that reality check, Kousuke tried to salvage the situation by scratching his head sheepishly and saying,
"Well, it's not like we don't celebrate at all. It's just that, we just wait for a lull in the enemy's movements before our Admiral decides it's safe to celebrate some random holiday. Maybe you'll get to ride it one of these days, if the enemy eases up on their offense."
Walking through the hangar, Shigure noted several stored equipment that were lying around the hangar, one of them being gas-powered rockets stored in a locker secured with heavy-duty padlocks, a large sign on it stating,
"NO DESTROYERS ALLOWED."
Several steel sculptures stood at another corner, depicting several ship girls in authoritative positions or pointing their weapons at unseen enemies.
There were also a few steel swings, an electronics corner with several dismantled laptops and a miniature racetrack marked out by metal girders with remote-controlled drift cars parked to the side.
Finally, they approached six go-karts at the end of the hangar, all hooked together via a heavy-duty cable with a mini-jeep pulling them along.
And by the looks of it, the go-karts were incredibly well-made.
Shigure wasn't an engineer, but she could learn to appreciate good engineering, Shigure herself being the result of a major engineering marvel.
The joints were smooth and the welding faultless, the handles on the underside of the racing seats used to adjust its position with seat belts hanging from the top corners and formed an "X".
And by the looks of it, the whole kart itself was crafted to be able to support the weight of almost any ship girl out there as the car tires looked sturdy enough to carry them over any terrain without bursting.
The engine that was tucked behind the driver's seat possessed six pistons, the wiring and tubes stretching out from it neatly bundled up and tucked into the frame of the kart.
The sealed gearbox was covered by the the go-kart's protective shell with colored foam cushions forming an extra layer of protection.
Kousuke clapped his hands to get their attention, announcing.
"Well, girls, get into a go-kart and adjust the seats accordingly until you're all comfortable. Let me know when you're done, and we'll be on our way onto the course."
Shimakaze naturally ran for the first go-kart and immediately went to work on the seat, the Rensouhou-chan all cheering her on as she studied the workings of the car with genuine interest.
An excited Yuudachi ran for the second go-kart and fiddled with the controls while Samidare politely occupied the last go-kart, pressing her dress in as she sat down and tucked her hair behind her ear.
Murasame went up to the fourth go-kart and motioned for Shigure to take up the third go-kart as she broke out into a wide smile, Shigure as she occupied the third go-kart.
The cushion was hard but not uncomfortable as it was designed to support the ship girl body for extended periods of time.
Shigure noted Kousuke retrieving several hair nets as she buckled her seat belt, coming up behind them and passing out the hair nets, announcing in the classic bored-theme-park-announcer voice,
"Be warned that your long hair can get caught in the many moving parts of the go-kart. Hence the hair nets to tie up your hair. This is compulsory, no questions."
The destroyers accepted the hair net without question, understanding that their long, flowing hair risked getting caught in the moving mechanical parts.
After reaching Samidare, Kousuke bent down to uncouple the sixth and final go-kart from the queue, pulling out five wireless helmets from a shelf to hand out to the five destroyers, Shigure noting that the helmet had a built-in microphone as she buckled her black helmet and pulled down the visor.
And as Kousuke walked down the queue of destroyers doing up their hair to pass out the helmets, he motioned to Shimakaze, stating,
"Your little boys can't be with you on the go-kart, but they can sit in the spectator stand and watch the live feed. We don't want you dropping one of them on the way down. Also, no bunny ears, unfortunately."
Shimakaze looked distraught by this, but her Rensouhou-chan cheered her up, chirping merrily and waving their cannons around in an attempt to get their master to smile.
And finally, Shimakaze's eyes hardened as she nodded, removing her bunny ears and handing it to Kousuke.
Shigure tilted her head to observe the Shimakaze-Class destroyer and found that without the black bunny ears, her signature blonde hair hidden by the blue helmet and her trio of Rensouhou-chan missing, she looked like a very different girl indeed.
And finally, Kousuke announced as he opened the door of the mini-jeep to store the Rensouhou-Chan and start the engine.
"On the way there, you all can talk about how many runs you want to do. The maximum of four runs cost about 3500 yen, and every other round costs another 1800 yen because of gas prices."
But amidst the destroyers' groans about being reminded to spend a fair bit of their salary to pay for the ride, Shigure nodded at the price, understanding the situation the world was in.
A voice popped up from the sides of Shigure's helmet, Kousuke's voice instructing,
"Alright, push down the emergency brake, AKA the lever located to your left, and we'll be on our way."
The go-karts lurched after everyone disengaged the emergency brakes, the mini-jeep pulling the line of go-karts out of the hangar exit at a low speed.
The queue was led out of the hangar onto the road that led into the forest where Shigure could see the neatly trimmed trees shielding them from the sun, the asphalt showing signs of use despite it being on the outskirts of the base.
Shigure heard the voice of Kousuke again from the in-built audio transceiver in her helmet, explaining.
"I ain't here to give you an engineering lesson, so all you need to know is that the go-karts themselves can reach up to about 160 km/h. The three pedals beneath your feet are what's going to run your go-karts. The pedal shaped 'A'..."
Shigure looked down, and indeed, the right pedal was shaped like an "A", the "B" pedal in the middle and the last pedal on the left being "C".
"... Is what's going to make the car go 'vroom vroom', alright? The "B" pedal is the brake, and it's what's going to slow you down. If you want to shift gears to go faster or slower, press down on the 'C' pedal to release the clutch, press one of the paddles behind the steering wheel to shift gears before re-engaging the clutch by releasing the clutch pedal. For the steering wheel paddles, remember: Left is to shift down, Right paddle's to shift up one gear, and there's a total of six gears. The speedometer on the steering wheel will change from green numbers to red to let you know when you are going too fast, or amber to tell you that you're too slow while engaging the gear. And when that happens, for god's sake, please change gears. "
As they entered the forest, a pleasant scenery came into view as the environmental flora were trimmed regularly, the road here marred by black tire tracks stretching down the road, a result of numerous high-speed races being held here.
Kousuke continued,
"If you're worried about practice, don't worry. We've got a car-park at the top of the hill for you to let loose. And if you want to speak, press the 'talk' button on the helmet."
A small static sound was heard before Yuudachi's voice spoke up in the headset, Yuudachi exclaiming.
"Is this going to be the best afternoon ever, or what, Poi?!"
Before Samidare interrupted,
"I do foresee that this is going to be fun, but everyone, please exercise caution when on the road, please!"
"Maa, don't worry about that, and instead worry about how I'm going to leave you in the dust!"
Murasame's voice boomed, and Yuudachi's laugh could be heard while Samidare sputtered, Shimakaze joining the conversation and proclaiming.
"Everyone, please. All of you are going to have to compete for second place, especially now that I'm here with you all."
Shigure smirked at the banter as she recalled Akashi's explanation about the go-karts themselves.
Somewhere along the ten-year history of the base, these go-karts were built as a form of entertainment for the base's occupants and were to be used on the less-often used roads that were built when the entire base was renovated to become one of the largest ship girl naval bases in Japan.
When Shigure asked for a short history lesson of the naval base itself, Akashi obliged, saying that the reason why they took ten full years into the war to decide to renovate the Yokosuka Naval Base was because before that, the Japanese government thought that they could still keep the war under wraps, and the complete renovation of one of the most prominent naval bases in Japan to accommodate girls of steel that could walk on water was anything but discrete.
And thus, after the big reveal ten years ago, there was relatively little paperwork needed to hand the naval base back into Japanese hands, since the Americans had already been brought up to speed three years into the war when it was clear that the ship girls needed an industrial giant to power the Japanese war machine while keeping everything a secret from the world.
Going off on a tangent, she described that the Americans had relatively little success in summoning their ship girls unlike the Germans and Italians, until three years of hard work with a few Fairies sent over to them produced the first American ship girl to be shown off to other countries via mass teleconference with almost every ship girl base at the time, as well as several ambassadors from participating countries eager to see what they had been investing in.
Old grudges and bad memories were being brought up, and the Japanese ship girls weren't too happy about this development, but ultimately attended the teleconference out of respect for the Americans' dedication to the cause by supplying resources and performing aerial bombardment when necessary.
The summoned USN ship?
William D. Porter.
Akashi said that even though the teleconference itself was purged from the internet by the powerful and influential Americans, the tale would forever be passed on by word-of-mouth, memory sharing via wireless torrenting between ship girls or by accessing the deep web.
During the teleconference, William D. Porter tried to prove the might of the USN despite her apparent nervousness by attempting to twirl her handheld ship girl cannon in a style reminiscent of cowboys in old Westerns.
Key word being attempted.
The unlucky destroyer promptly shot herself in the foot.
By accident.
On a global live teleconference.
The high-pitched scream that came from the White House coupled with a resounding bout of laughter that rocked the coast of Eastern Japan and the ports of Europe formed one gigantic mystery that plagued the internet's conspiracy theorists for another four years before the big reveal.
The fact that Willie D. Porter tried to salvage the situation by posing with two peace hand signs held beside her teary-eyed smile as she was carted off by six muscular medics before the teleconference ended helped her subsequent clones earn the nickname of "LOLboat" to this day.
Despite that hiccup, the USN dedicated their resources into mass-producing ship girls to help hold the fort against the Abyssals, who had already begun to really pile on the pressure with their mass-produced Elite Abyssals in the second quarter of the war.
And that wasn't accounting for how much they helped in the third quarter of the war, where major changes rocked their world with the establishment of rights, something the Americans learnt well from their own history, and garnering major support from the public.
And that was around when the Princesses came…
Akashi explained to Shigure that any wartime grievances between the ship girls had to be slowly resolved over time because they had to work together to effectively combat the Abyssals, this being an undeniable fact that all ship girls learnt to accept sooner or later.
So despite the fact that a few fights were going to break out between ship girls who bore major grudges against each other, a few ship girls in the naval war have reconciled and befriended each other despite their violent history together.
And the unspoken rule of survival amongst them was that their grudge matches should be kept to backyard fights and never be allowed to influence the battlefield where each ship girl watched each other's backs, this ironclad rule transcending nationality, history, and ship class.
Shigure was brought back to reality by the line of go-karts stopping atop some sort of hill overlooking the base, the voice of Kousuke chirping in Shigure's ear as she shook her head to focus on the present.
"Alright, we're here. I'll uncouple the cables that tie your cars together, and you can ride around the car-park until Akio finishes setting up the track."
Right as Shigure saw the engineer walk out and start uncoupling the cars, observing that the cables had some sort of mechanism on them that hooked the cable to the underside of the go-karts via the steel frames.
As Shigure waited for the cars to all be uncoupled before they started to drive off, Shigure pressed the "talk" button just as Kousuke returned to the car, asking.
"Kousuke-san, I was just wondering.
Do the carriers and battleships go-kart often, or do they have actual cars of their own?"
Kousuke's voice answered,
"The current setup is good for carrying anything up to a heavy cruiser. It's not as if a lot of older ship girls come here to race, it's mostly destroyers and light cruisers since y'all technically aren't old enough to buy cars, and will likely never be. But if a battleship or a carrier were to ask to ride on our go-karts, we'd have to do a quick swap out for stronger and more long-lasting brakes to compensate for their weight and use heavy-duty tires which don't allow them to drift. The chassis however, and that's the body of the car, is capable of supporting anyone."
Murasame voiced a simple question,
"How do you know?"
She got a simple answer.
"We got the Yamato and Nagato-Class battleships to drive it downhill. Several times. It works."
Kousuke left them with a final piece of advice.
"You can play 'bumper cars' with each other right now, but incur any damages and y'all are paying for it, you hear me, kids?"
Followed by a chorus of "YES, SIR!" from the destroyers, Kousuke waving with a smug grin as he replied,
"Nah, just kidding. We'll rope you in for repairs, but you don't have to pay a single yen for the repairs since y'all do so much for us already. We'd feel bad if we tax you 'Saviors of Mankind' for all the lill' things, eh?"
They pulled out their wallets to pay the fee that the destroyers made sure to withdraw from the cash machines around the base in advance, Akashi sharing the fee beforehand to prevent any complications.
For the next fifteen minutes, Shigure learnt the basics of driving, following Kousuke's advice and shifting gears when the speedometer notified her, while Yuudachi experimented with the controls by pulling on the emergency brakes and spinning out, only to laugh heartily upon stopping as Shimakaze did her own thing and maneuvered her go-kart fluidly.
Shigure observed the Shimakaze-Class destroyer every so often and noted her movements, theorizing that Shimakaze wasn't a stranger to driving as she did everything with only a slight uncertainty as if running through everything again to check if her memory served her well.
Samidare was more reserved, pressing down on the pedal for a burst of speed, only to ease up on the accelerator with a frightened squeak and losing her momentum while Murasame was swerving and trying to master maneuvering her go-kart through the imaginary corners in her mind, Shigure's HUD displaying.
2.37 p.m.
Kousuke's voice chirped again on the helmet speakers.
"Hey, Akio, you finish setting up the track, or did you crash the golf cart again?"
And Akio's irritated voice responded wearily, as though having heard this joke too many times.
"It was that one time, and the road was wet from the rain…"
"Yeah, why don't I get you one of those baby walkers, where you can sit down on it and crash that as you run it down the course?"
"Yeah, fuck you too."
Kousuke got the destroyers' attention via the speaker, getting into the booth with several monitors overlooking a few corners on the course and changing every few seconds, the Rensouhou-chan trio chirping animatedly inside the booth.
The booth was flanked by a road marked out "Exit", and on the other side was some sort of escalator with the same hooks used to connect and transport the go-karts, Kousuke announcing when they maneuvered their go-karts to the exit of the car-park.
"Alright, after you go down the course, Akio will be down there making sure you all reach the end of the course. He'll be manning the machine to take you back up, so follow his instructions, alright?"
He jerked his thumb at the sheltered escalator made out of steel poles and folded metal sheets, the windows perhaps made out of transparent acrylic or Plexiglas.
But Shigure and the rest of the destroyers were focused on the Exit path ahead of them, an oft-traversed path that was evidenced by the skid marks on the floor.
It led down the hill and vanished behind a corner, Shigure's foot resting on the accelerator as her other foot held down the brake pedal.
The installed traffic light displayed red, but as the lights changed to green, Shigure released the brake pedal and pushed down on the accelerator to gain a burst of speed.
The exit of the car-park was relatively narrow, only allowing only two go-karts to enter the course at a time.
Yuudachi and Shimakaze went first, Murasame and Shigure entering second and Samidare starting out last as she offered to take up the rear.
Shigure changed gears, the loud engine changing in pitch as Shigure released the clutch to press down on the accelerator, the resulting burst of speed pushing her back into her seat.
The incline was gentle and the corners weren't too sharp, allowing for high-speed cornering as Shigure noted the speedometer reminding her that she had to change gears again.
In front of her, she could see Shimakaze and Yuudachi duking it out while Murasame was struggling to control the go-kart while driving on this unexpectedly fast section of the course.
She couldn't divert her attention to look back at Samidare when she didn't know the course well enough.
Besides, she knew Samidare wasn't the type to take things to the extreme, likely preferring to take the course especially slow on the first run.
The trees that lined the road were trimmed such that they wouldn't pose a hazard to the drivers, and Shigure appreciated the view of the lush flora, the green and light grey-brown "walls" guiding them and blocking out most of the elements as sunlight broke through the cover of the leaves to illuminate the road.
The road and the go-karts in front of Shigure disappeared to the right as Shigure's heart stopped.
But amidst her pounding heart, sweating forehead and white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, she calmly reminded herself that this was a mountain road, and there would eventually be corners.
And being on the left of the road, she swerved to the edge of the road before turning gently to cut in front of Murasame, who decided to play it safe by braking earlier, Shigure coming up on the inside of the turn and exiting swiftly, her mind whirling at how fast she was going.
Whew, I have to be careful not to sound too much like Shimakaze. But I have to admit, this is a rush!
Shigure shifted up, seeing the brake lights of the two go-karts in front of her blink on and left red streaks as they approached the corner.
Yuudachi took the lead as they exited the corner, Shigure estimating the braking distance before cornering.
And as she came out of the corner, she noticed something about the Shimakaze-Class destroyer.
She was taking in everything.
From the gutters barely covered by the weeds and the blades of grass to the minute cracks on the asphalt, Shimakaze's helmet twitched constantly in different directions as she took in the details of the course, Shigure looking on in amazement.
Is she using this run to learn the ins and outs of the course so that she can crush us in the later runs?
Shigure looked to her right, and as she matched Shimakaze's speed for an instant, she could see that the destroyer's eyes were watchful.
Almost calculating, if Shigure wasn't trying to focus on driving at the same time and had more time to analyze her at that moment.
But Shimakaze's eyes softened as she broke out into a soft smile, taking her hand off the steering wheel and pointing right in front of her as she stepped on a pedal.
Shigure looked back in front of her to find herself speeding into a left hairpin turn, black-and-yellow arrows surrounding the outside of the corner.
Shigure's heart stopped as she hit the brake pedal, hands jerking to the left as she used her foot to press on the clutch for an instant as she changed gears mid-turn, rustling the bushes as she exited the corner.
The road swerved to the right and Shigure sporadically pressed on the brakes as she entered the corner, wondering if the seat belt holding her down was really going to protect her despite being made out of steel and could easily recover from most wounds.
But just because you could recover quickly, didn't mean that you couldn't feel the pain.
Sometimes, Shigure lamented, it didn't pay to be a ship girl.
When she was absolutely sure that she was figuratively out of the woods, Shigure took a deep breath and recalled Shimakaze's observant look.
Shimakaze was taking a step back to observe the situation instead of rushing in, before concentrating her efforts on where it really mattered to annihilate her enemies.
But then, Shigure thought, what changed her so much, to make her be capable of such a thing?
Akashi explained that Shimakaze was rather outgoing and brash during her younger days, so something had to really affect her on a personal level to change her this much.
She had now become extremely guarded about her past, and everyone avoided that particular topic out of "tact".
But she temporarily shelved those thoughts, seeing Yuudachi spin her steering wheel to the right and pulling the emergency brake.
And as the rear of Yuudachi's go-kart swung out, Shigure's heart leapt into her throat, wondering why her sister was sabotaging her own lead.
But Yuudachi immediately counter-steered as she spun her steering wheel to the left, working the pedals and causing the go-kart to kick up smoke and debris as she drifted.
Shigure was suddenly thankful for the helmet visor as she mimicked her sister's movements as best she could, snapping the steering wheel to the left to counter-steer and hope for the best.
The resulting drift wasn't too shabby, working the pedals and gear paddles and eventually learning to maintain the drift throughout the corner, learning on the fly as she kept up with her sister ship.
The incline was starting to become a little steeper, this section of the course filled with turns and unexpected rises in the road where the ground rose to temporarily become an uphill climb before dropping like a meandering roller-coaster ride.
Throughout the course, Shigure had noticed several exits that had been closed off by Akio beforehand with the use of traffic cones and erected signs, and Shigure could get a bird's eye view of the base as she came across an opening in the forest to her left.
What she saw next took her breath away.
The base looked so massive from above, the larger buildings of the hospital and the Administration Office standing tall while the same cranes that were inactive when she arrived were now moving cargo about and doing their duties sluggishly yet efficiently.
The ocean was a brilliant sapphire blue as the afternoon sun was reflected off the ocean surface, the wake of several ship girls barely visible as she strained her bionic eyes, the trees parting to allow her this glimpse of what was essentially Paradise to a ship girl like her.
She was brought back to reality by a crowd of trees slamming by and blocking the view, Shigure barely braking in time to avoid crashing into a tree that was standing a little too close to the next hairpin corner and saving herself from having to spend a few days in the docks with a broken neck or limb.
Shigure could see Yuudachi drifting into another corner, but Shigure now knew that although drifting was a good way to enter the corners faster, she didn't want to rip her tires apart so soon into the race.
She braked prematurely, shifting down as she entered the corner at a decent speed while easing up on the brakes.
She was slowly catching up to Yuudachi, and amidst the pounding of her heart and the sweat on her sailor uniform, the shrill scream of the engine right behind her, the ground vanishing underneath her front bumper at an exhilarating speed, and her trembling palms on the steering wheel, she could see.
She could see life flashing past her like the trees lining the road, each of them a passing thought as she raced down the mountain, the adrenaline coursing through her body as her mechanical heart pulsed.
And for an instant, she could feel as if she could see the world as Shimakaze saw it, the adrenaline rush overwhelming and addictive as all her concerns, burdens and responsibilities were left behind as she focused on the path ahead of her.
As she approached another sharp corner, she went with the flow and pulled the emergency brake for an instant to initiate a drift as she worked the pedals, smoothly exiting the corner while on Yuudachi's tail.
The go-kart was simple enough for a ship girl to pick up and learn, and drifting was a technique Shigure wanted to experiment with to see how fast she could go despite the second section being full of low-speed corners.
The incline steepened after the next corner, the winding "S" road that curved to the left led to a wide right corner that was at least seven meters wide, but Shigure wasn't going to take any chances as she drove on the right side of the road and cut in sharply while braking, in contrast to her sister who entered the corner by drifting into it.
And as Shigure expected, just barely out of view of the two corners were the distinct yellow-black arrow signs near the exit to indicate a sharp turn as the incline of the wide road became gentler yet narrower at the exit.
Shigure could almost hear Yuudachi squeak as she kept to the outside lane, hastily engaging the brakes to slow down her go-kart in order not to miss the narrow exit and fly off the road.
Shigure easily passed her sister, having reduced her speed earlier and was able to maneuver freely while cornering.
And after that, Shigure only had to contend with a few more high speed corners, the last section of the course after that infamous corner having dangerously narrow roads.
She knew she was no longer on the main road and was now on one of the less often used roads that the higher-ups likely saw no need to widen due to its isolated location and lack of use.
Shigure found herself braking more often on the final section of the course, Shigure doing her best to navigate the high-speed corners while trying not to crash on a dangerously narrow road.
At the end of the course, a "FINISH" banner was raised to signal the end of the course, a high-speed camera strapped to the erected steel pole to capture the winner of the race.
Akio was there, the golf cart parked at a small plain which doubled as a makeshift car-park.
Akio gestured for Shigure to get off the road, the destroyer turning to the left at the T-section where Akio was stationed, spotting the other end of the heavy-duty escalator that could be seen at the top of the hill.
Akio motioned for her to stop, and as Shigure unbuckled her helmet to air her hair, Akio mentioned,
"Well, that was quite the lap record you clocked in at. You interested in breaking the fastest destroyer time record?"
And Shigure smirked cheekily, welcoming a challenge.
"If that's possible. But I think I know who set that record in the first place…"
Akio smirked, and pointed behind her at another go-kart entering the car-park.
"Speak of the devil…"
Shigure turned her head to follow the direction of Akio's finger, already certain of the destroyer's identity.
"... And the devil appears."
The rider of the go-kart wore a blue helmet with conspicuous strands of blonde hair peeking out, wearing her blue-white sleeveless sailor uniform and had a gloved hand on the steering wheel.